Green Day

I have been photographing items for the shop this weekend and noticed this wonderful grouping of 1950's greens and aquas emerging.

My daughter Ky was here for supper last night and grabbed these turquoise Franciscan Pottery (California) plates for her new place.  These have the most amazing glaze and look like the clay was folded and ruffled around the edges...they are really gorgeous.

The McCoy pots have wonderful colors too...

An entire collection of McCoy Pottery

Hanson Nursery Scales.  These ones came from Stedmans Chemists in Chicago.

We also have these in pink.

This dresser is my favourite.  I believe it to be Eastern European or possibly from Quebec.  The color is stunning and so is the hardware.  This one is calling me...

The hardest thing about setting up shop is letting it go. Both Lorraine and I love flea marketing, I particularly love the dishware and linens, and Lorraine and her husband love the Salvage finds. There will be certain bits I can't part with, but I know for the most part, this is now our business and it has to go..........

Sarah Richardson's Farmhouse

For those of you who are fans of Sarah Richardson, her new show started last week.  It chronicles her purchase and reno of an old Ontario farmhouse.  She paid $500K and plans to sink another $600K into the project.  In the first episode she transforms the front entry and mud room for $40K.  Interesting use of color with cranberry painted doors. Her sidekick Tommy Smythe of course seems mortified to be dragged out of the city.  Worth watching although the budget is crazy.  If you missed it you can watch it by clicking HERE.

A day in the Country

Abandoned farmhouse...how I would love to get inside...there are curtains on the windows, and I wonder what was left behind..

My first trip north after Winter is always exciting.  The landscape is still barren, and a little snow about, but I always get really geared up to see what's been going on in Small town Ontario since I was last here. I thought readers from afar may enjoy seeing a glimse of the rural Canadian countryside.

We stopped at the Pie Company.  I like to buy their cherry pies and make cherry pie ice cream.

There is a large Mennonite population, so the local establishments still provide hitching posts.

Where else but the country can you see shelves stacked with homemade preserves?

The Spring runoff is crazy this year, many fields are flooded.

But the skies were blue and the livestock are feeling the Spring.

The bookstore is not yet open for the season.  Reminds me of the wild wild West.

We saw some interesting characters...and I think we were supposed to go that way...

We got an invite to look around a farm..

And saw some cute boys.....

....and these boys are useful.  The farmer puts "goat packs" on their backs and takes them into the bushes raspberry picking.  The goats carry the raspberries and also the picnic lunch. Really.!!! Aparently, goats don't run off like a dog could as they like to stay within site of the pack...

And found some new places to eat.

  Best of all, we found some wonderful treasures.  Ironstone plates, vintage linens, milk bottles, tons of McCoy Pottery and a heap of Grindley Peach Petal dishware, brown and white transferware, egg baskets, baby scales, gorgeous green glass medicine bottles.....

tomorrow I will wash it all and photograph it so I can show you all on Monday.

Have a great Sunday.

Chania

Have a great weekend. Check in on Monday-Heading North Vintage shopping

White on white infant clothes at the Flea Market

 I love the scrubby embellishments

...and the pretty hems and embroidery

...and pretty maids all in a row....

Heading North with Lorraine this weekend to search the countryside for treasures.

I hope you all have a great weekend.

When you find that perfect piece

I have been struggling with achieving balance in my living room.  I have a fireplace on the main wall with a space twice the size to the right of the space to the left of it.

I recently added this piece to the right side

But the left side has been a problem for years... I have tried various pieces but nothing seemed right. In the end I just left the chair there with nothing waiting for the right piece to come along.

...and then one day a couple of weeks ago..my business partner Lorraine took some junk from her garage to the shop...and this is what one of the items..

a pale, scrubby gateleg table with barley twist legs

I eyed it all afternoon at the shop, then stuffed it in my car and brought it home to try it out.

And it worked, it was the piece that was missing.  I checked with Lorraine to make sure she really was going to give it up and she promptly gave it to me.  She even fed her family of 6 around this table for years and it had come from England with her, which made it even more special.

I hung above it a huge ornate plaster mirror that I found on the road when my children were little.  It was so heavy I made them get out of the stroller and walk home so the mirror could be pushed in the stroller!  It has a restoration number on the back of it, so I am sure it was once a really good piece.  I think it works well with the scrubby table.  One of perils and pleasures of our business is we are always finding buts that would work well in our houses, and we have to let them go, but not this one...it's a keeper.

Check out Show and Tell Friday at My Romantic Home

and Furniture Friday at Miss Mustard Seed Creations

to see what other treasure people have found.

Bunny Season

Spent the afternoon yesterday making gift bags for Easter.  We now have pink bunny ears and blue bunny ears.  We have sold a few of our silver baby cups and vintage egg cups with them.  It would be such a cute gift with a chocolate egg in it or a chocolate bunny. This weekend we are heading North to scour our favourite vintage haunts for more stock.

For Easter or baby gifts, we look out for little cups..

......reusable gift bags

...and little extra fillers such as baby spoons

....I become very attached to some of these adorable treasures, but know I can't hang on to them. 

Our Handmade Soaps have arrived

Sampling our Soaps

Two of our gorgeous handmade soaps have arrived, all the way from Canada's East Coast, and they are beautiful.  They are olive oil based and contain only essential oils,-absolutley nothing artificial and are an absolute dream.  They are so delicate on your skin and the fragance is light and natural. We really researched our soap makers.  We wanted someone committed to using natural, environmentally sound practices and ingredients, and when we found Sherrie, we were delighted.  Her products fitt the bill exactly for what we wanted to stock in our shop.

We have  narrowed it down to 4 fragrances, each with their own unique packaging:

Our Classic man soap contains natural willow and cedar and has a warm, outdoory scent with a hint of a fresh cut cedar log.  Although manly, I have been using it and love the smell so much......

Simple Life

A fresh everyday soap with a gentle squeeze of lemon-suitable for the entire family.

Fresh Love

This soap reminds me of Paris in the  Spring, a fresh mix of fresh orange and hint of vanilla, it is defintely a sensual, yummy fragrance

Pure Baby

A fragrance free pure soap perfect for babies an sensitive skin.  We think this would make a lovely gift for a new mum.

Packaging was a real concern for us.  Our shop focuses on good quaity products and reused and recycled vintage treasures, and we really wanted a package that didn't need any further wrapping that would be a bother for our customers and also end up in a landfill.  We came up with a environmentally friendly 100% American grown cotton bag, free from chemicals, bleach and sprays.  We handstamped each bag, then added a vintage button to each one .

Tied up with a vintage button

Our Pure Baby and Fresh Love soaps will arrive in 2 weeks, and will all be featured on our website April 1st.  In the meantime of you would like to order either Classic Man or Simple Life, please email me and I can invoice you through paypal.  Each wrapped soap is $10.00 cdn. plus shipping.

Banishing the "evil" one

Some of you may remember my post about this gorgeous ironstone platter that I found last summer, only to discover that it had an evil past.  I purchased it at a 2nd hand shop, along with another pile of platters.

Long story short, it turned out to be from WW2 and was a platter made for the Geramn air force and had a swastika and eagle on the back and FL UV 1941.  You can read the original post here  and see the full nasty thing.

I really didn't want it in my house and thought of e-bay, but then   I contacted the Holocaust Museum in Montreal and felt strongly that it wasn't something to get in the hands of "certain" collectors and they were happy to accept it into their archives.  So, it is on it's way and the "evil" one will become an educational tool.

Back

The view from my sunbed

I am back from my girls week away and full from all the laughter and fun we all had together.  St. Lucia is wonderful.  Lush and tropical (no rain though for 2 months).  The people are lovely and our side of the island was unspoiled by large hotels and boutique shopping.

Beach at high tide

Travelling with 5 girls aged 22 - 26 was an adventure.  We all stayed together during the day, sunning and swimming and sightseeing.  We would then dress and meet for drinks in the lobby before dinner, dine together, attend the resort entertainment and dance, then leave the girls to do their thing later in the evening.  Of course you can't travel with 5 gorgeous girls and not have drama.  There were always stories over breakfast of the events at the disco or bar or pool the night before.

We had lots of Champagne celebrations

.... and had to go to recovery mode on occasion

It was wonderful to get to know my son's future sisters in law better, and their best friend and the 2 other mothers.  The girls are all like sisters and it was just joyful and heart warming to sit back and watch them as young adults. What I most enjoyed was that they don't sit back and wait for the fun to happen.  They were always the first on the dance floor and as the resort staff kept saying "these are the girls that get the party started".  And they were gracious and inclusive- getting everyone involved.

This is my girl Ky (shorty as the gorgeous tall St. Lucian women called her) at the Grand Barbecue celebration

The volcano

We had drinks poolside at the Hummingbird Resort with the Grande Pitons in the background...Heaven

This is the ship from Pirates of the Caribbean

We went Whale watching but only saw dolphin, but they were amazing....

The final night...trying to teach us how to shake it like the Caribs.

All in all, it was fabulous.  With one exception.  We stayed at the Coconut Bay Resort.  The resort itself was great, the food good and atmosphere vibrant, however they had a ridiculous rule that you could have no more than 6 people at a table at the restaurants.  That meant we were not allowed to dine together.  I took particular exception to this as it is my favourite part of the whole holiday.  We always get dressed up and make an event of it.  The first night they wouldn't consider letting us eat together no matter how we tried to convince them.  The whole dining room quietly watched us argue and plead with them.  They had no good reason, other than it was a "rule" and they didn't want large tables messing up the dining room.

  Being the rebels we are, we "shockingly" pushed our tables together causing the manager and hostess to ignore us for the rest of the week, but one waitress (thanks Aline) came to serve us and welcomed us greatly and we were able to share our first meal together and celebrate.  I had further discussions with the manager and they refused to budge on the policy, however a second manager made "special" arrangements for us for one of the girls birthday dinner and we were "allowed" to sit together. However, we just pushed the tables together every night.  I think the managers hated us and the staff secretly applauded us. 

 One night they closed one of the restaraunts causing a lot of people to have nowhere to dine except the buffet.  We were told it was closed for a private function.  When we walked by we saw a breach of procotcol......horrors a table for 12.  I later found out it was the owner of the hotel and his guests......interesting that he wanted to dine with his entire party of guests.  Of course I took photos for Trip Advisor to prove how ridiculous the whole rule was.  My principle is that families and friends reconnect on a holiday and part of the whole festive and wonderful part of a vacation is being together.  I don't go out to eat to not be allowed to sit with my family or group.

Unspoiled beauty

The St. Lucians are gracious and interesting and colorful hosts.  I can't think of a more beautiful island.  And I can't be more fullfilled and happy to have had the opportunity to spend this wonderful week with such good people with so much laughter and memories.